9-year-old California girl Melodee Buzzard still missing

ABC News

hace 2 semanas

A search is still ongoing for Melodee Buzzard, who went missing after a long road trip with her mother, Ashlee, who was arrested last week on unrelated charges.

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00:00This is the last known recording of Melody Buzzard, according to authorities.

00:04Video obtained by the Sheriff's Department from a rental car facility surveillance camera

00:09shows Melody, who's nine years old, with her mother Ashley, both wearing wigs.

00:14We miss her so much.

00:16But that video was from over a month ago.

00:19And on Friday, her mother Ashley arrested on unrelated charges.

00:22But the big question remains, where is Melody Buzzard?

00:26Melody, where is Melody?

00:28Melody, where is Melody?

00:31Chanting outside her home in Lumpet, California, a community demanding an answer to a question

00:36now being asked in multiple states is the search for the missing nine-year-old whitelies.

00:41Federal and local authorities in California, Nevada, Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas now involved.

00:49Melody went missing in October after she went on a road trip with her mother.

00:52Leaving on October 7th for three days, Ashley drove a white 2024 Chevy Malibu rental car more

01:00than 3,000 miles, driving 50 hours in a 72-hour period, according to authorities.

01:06This is the route investigators believe Ashley took.

01:09On their way back, according to investigators, they took an odd route.

01:14They went through not a way you would normally go, going from Nebraska back to California.

01:18The crucial question, what happened during that road trip?

01:21We also know that both Melody and Ashley wore wigs on this road trip.

01:28And then also we know that the vehicle license plates were switched.

01:32And then at one point they did bear a New York license plate.

01:36We believe that these actions were done to avoid detection.

01:39Why try to hide her identity?

01:41Why switch the plates from California to New York plates on that road trip?

01:45Authorities say Ashley has been uncooperative.

01:48According to a neighbor, this video appears to show Ashley removing missing person posters

01:53from her front yard in late October.

01:56In Santa Barbara County, it seems like there's a real belief that Ashley Buzzard knows a lot

02:01more than what she's saying, that she is not coming clean with investigators.

02:05Authorities say she returned home alone on October 10th without her daughter, Melody.

02:09The last time anybody knows that Melody Buzzard was alive and where she was,

02:16was on October 9th on the Colorado side of the Colorado-Utah border.

02:20Investigators tell us they have surveillance video of Melody and her mother together

02:25on this road trip, making their way back from Nebraska.

02:29What happened from there?

02:31The trail goes dark.

02:32For a missing child or even a missing adult,

02:35There are certain things that someone like myself looks for when on the ground.

02:41Bill Garcia is a private investigator and has been investigating missing child cases since 1991.

02:47He's now searching for Melody,

02:49investigating Melody's case on behalf of her father's side of the family.

02:53Essentially what I'm doing is I'm tracing and following the route

02:58from highway to highway along this rural route.

03:01He's near the Utah-Colorado border right now.

03:04So far, I don't see any of the signs that would indicate Melody's life was taken

03:10and that she may be out anywhere near this area.

03:14So I have a high belief that she is probably alive.

03:18She was officially reported missing on October 14th

03:22because of her prolonged absence at her school independent study program.

03:26A school official requested that we check her welfare at her residence in the Lompoc.

03:32Deputies did contact the mom at the residence,

03:35but she was unable to give us a verifiable or reasonable explanation as to where Melody was.

03:41And thus began our missing person investigation.

03:45Investigators said Melody was homeschooled.

03:48But ABC News confirmed with the California Department of Education

03:51that there is no record of Ashley Buzzard ever filing the paperwork required for homeschooling.

03:57Nobody had really seen Melody.

03:59In fact, the most recent photo that investigators have of Melody

04:05is from two years ago when she was seven years old.

04:08This photo that has been everywhere may not even be what she looks like today.

04:14Melody, she was a very happy baby.

04:17I don't know about now.

04:19I don't even recognize her in those pictures that the FBI say that that's her.

04:24I don't know who she is.

04:26I haven't seen my granddaughter in four years.

04:29Lily Dennis is Melody's paternal grandmother.

04:31But she says after Melody's dad died, she saw less and less of Melody.

04:36They came for Thanksgiving, for Christmas.

04:39But after when my son passed away, she was six months old.

04:43And then she started getting apart from us.

04:46Lily blames Ashley for her granddaughter's disappearance.

04:49Where is Melody?

04:51Nobody knows anything.

04:53Supposedly, nobody knows.

04:54She knows where the baby is.

04:56I'm hoping that the baby's okay.

04:58That's what we're praying.

05:00Late last week, authorities served a search warrant on Ashley and Melanie's home,

05:04as well as a storage locker and rental car that Ashley had used.

05:08And then on Friday, Ashley was arrested on felony charges

05:12completely unrelated to her missing daughter for false imprisonment.

05:16The criminal complaint noting the manner in which the crime was carried out

05:20indicates planning, sophistication, or professionalism.

05:24Those charges are separate.

05:25That's not a child-related charge that you're seeing.

05:29Because recovering a nine-year-old missing child is the overarching goal here,

05:33we don't want to compromise the one for the other.

05:36Investigators urging the public to reach out to the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department

05:40if they know of Melanie's whereabouts.

05:43This is a missing person case.

05:44This is not a homicide investigation.

05:46We are running at full tilt to find a missing nine-year-old girl and bring her to safety.

05:54Ashley Buzzard is due for her first court appearance tomorrow in California.

05:58We are running at full tilt to find a missing one for the other.

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